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What Small Countries Can Teach the World

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  • Frankel, Jeffrey A.

    (Harvard University)

Abstract

The large economies have each, in sequence, offered "models" that once seemed attractive to others but that eventually gave way to disillusionment. Small countries may have some answers. They are often better able to experiment with innovative policies and institutions and some of the results are worthy of emulation. This article gives an array of examples. Some of them come from small advanced countries: New Zealand's Inflation Targeting, Estonia's flat tax, Switzerland's debt brake, Ireland's FDI policy, Canada's banking structure, Sweden's Nordic model, and the Netherlands' labor market reforms. Some examples come from countries that were considered "developing" 40 years ago, but have since industrialized. Korea stands for education; among Singapore's innovative polices were forced saving and traffic congestion pricing; Costa Rica and Mauritius outperformed their respective regions by, among other policies, foreswearing standing armies; and Mexico experimented successfully with the original Conditional Cash Transfers. A final set of examples come from countries that export mineral and agricultural commodities, historically vulnerable to the "resource curse," but that have learned how to avoid the pitfalls: Chile's structural budget rules, Mexico's oil option hedging, and Botswana's "Pula Fund."

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Paper provided by Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government in its series Working Paper Series with number rwp12-013.

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Date of creation: Apr 2012
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Handle: RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp12-013

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  1. Jeffrey A. Frankel & Carlos A. Végh & Guillermo Vuletin, 2011. "On Graduation from Fiscal Procyclicality," NBER Working Papers 17619, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Edwards, Sebastian, 1991. "Monetarism and Liberalization," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226184890, September.
  3. repec:imf:imfeci:20 is not listed on IDEAS
  4. Roger H. Gordon, 2010. "Report of the Editor: Journal of Economic Literature," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 678-79, May.
  5. Sebastian Edwards & Alejandra Cox Edwards, 2000. "Economic Reforms and Labor Markets: Policy Issues and Lessons from Chile," NBER Working Papers 7646, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. Why we need small countries: they experiment with policies
    by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2012-05-17 14:57:00
  2. What Georgia Can Teach the World
    by Michael Fuenfzig in The ISET Economist on 2012-05-17 14:35:19

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